Smart cable and methods thereof

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides methods and circuits of a smart cable that allows using parasitic inductances available in any cable that has at least two wires for power connection in order to provide both power connection and power conversion capabilities. Application to switching regulators allow them to provide the same power conversion function with less passive components, and therefore, reduce the implementation space to save cost as well as improve efficiency. Sample applications include, but are not limited to, smart USB cables and smart power cables in computer systems such as a data center that can provide a power delivery function including both power connectivity and power conversion. The use of a cable as an inductor in a hybrid topology helps spread the inductor copper loss over the cable that much larger surface area for heat dissipation, and significantly reduce on-board thermal issues.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 62/343,162 entitled “Smart Cable and Methods Thereof” and filed May 31, 2016 and U.S. provisional application No. 62/455,413 entitled “Hybrid Converter” and filed on Feb. 6, 2017, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to a smart cable that includes both power connection and power conversion.

BACKGROUND

The number of smart connected electronic systems, ranging from sensor networks, mobile devices to data centers, has been skyrocketing in recent years. In order to deliver power to these systems, there are two main methods: wired or wireless. Since wireless power delivery suffers from low efficiency because of multiple conversion stages and low power capability, e.g., for consumer mobile electronics, because of safety issues, wired power delivery still vastly dominates the market, especially in electronic systems that require multiple watts and above.

In wired power delivery, an electronic system receives power from a power source with a power delivery system that includes a power regulator, also referred as a voltage regulator, with a large number of bulky off-chip components and a wire/cable network to connect between the power source and the power regulator. In battery-powered systems including laptops and mobile phones, the power delivery system includes two serial stages: 1) the first stage includes a power adapter to convert alternating-current (AC) line voltage to a direct-current (DC) voltage and a cable, e.g. a USB cable, to deliver this DC voltage to the mobile device's power jack; 2) the second stage includes DC-DC power regulators and a wire network to deliver charge to battery as well as to peripheral components, display screen, and integrated chips, including processors, memory devices, and communication chips. The first stage is applied when an energy storage element of a mobile system, e.g., its battery or other energy storage element, is to be charged from a wall line power. The second stage delivers power to the system energy storage element (e.g., battery) when the first stage is used, or from the energy storage element to peripheral circuits and components when otherwise. Considering the increasing complexity of power delivery required on electronics systems, there is a strong desire to reduce the size while improving efficiency of a power delivery network.

In the power delivery network described above, when the first stage is connected, a battery or other energy storage element of a mobile electronic device is in a charging mode. Although the term battery is used in many examples herein, it should be understood that other energy storage elements, such as capacitors, ultracapacitors, high density capacitors or the like are also contemplated. In order to recharge the energy storage element (e.g., battery), the power delivery network utilizes a charger circuit. This charger circuit has been widely implemented by a linear regulator, which is essentially a controllable resistor between the input power port of the device and the battery. Since linear regulator has efficiency inherently limited by the ratio between its output voltage, e.g., battery voltage, and input voltage at the device power port, the linear regulator cannot support high-current fast charging for battery. Therefore, the industry in recent years has gradually moved to using a more efficient switching charger that oftentimes is a “buck” regulator. A buck regulator transfers charges from the input power source to the output using an inductor. The inductor is switched between different voltages to provide an output voltage that is a weighted average of the multiple voltages.

Although more efficient than a linear charger, today's buck switching regulator may still causes problems to highly integrated electronic systems. As the electronic systems gets smaller in volume to satisfy customers' needs, the space allocated for the charging function also get squeezed. At the same time, it is increasingly desirable to increase charging speed. However, this desirable charge capability increase that requires a higher charger current and thus more heat dissipation by the charger can be crippled by the system local and/or global thermal limit. This thermal limit is also one reason why the battery charger feature still remains in a separate chip and not integrated in other power management ICs (PMICs), e.g. the PMIC that powers the application processor and other features in smartphones.

The conversion efficiency of a battery charger in form of a buck regulator depends on the size of the inductor, particularly at high voltage conversion ratio and high load current. Higher inductance, i.e. in range of micro-Henry, is often favorable for efficiency, but leads to a large implementation area that is too bulky to be on chip, i.e. on-die or on-package. Using off-chip inductors requires a large area on the printed circuit board, which in turn increases the size of the electronic device.

Another type of power regulator is a switched-capacitor regulator, where capacitors are used instead of inductors. Since capacitors can be easier to integrate and have higher energy density than inductors, a switched-capacitor regulator emerges as a strong candidate to complement switched-inductor types in many high-power applications, especially in an integrated context. Unfortunately, switched-capacitor regulators have high efficiency only at certain discrete input to output voltage ratios, i.e. 1/2, 1/3, and 2/3, and become power-inefficient when the ratio deviates from these values. These characteristics of SC converters are presented with a practical implementation in the article titled “‘Design Techniques for Fully Integrated Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converters,” published in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits in September 2011, by Hanh-Phuc Le et al.

In a recent design, both inductor and capacitor components are combined into a hybrid architecture that could enable full integration of power regulators. This hybrid regulator can be designed to achieve high efficiency combining the benefits from the switched-capacitor at high conversion steps and from the inductor type with fine regulation between these steps. At the same time, the hybrid architecture operating at high switching frequency allows small inductance and thus enables integration of all passive components. However, this type of regulator still has issues with scalability to higher output power and thermal dissipation because of the concentration of power elements on the chip or printed circuit board (PCB).

FIG. 1C shows a circuit that employs a flying switched inductor regulator 161 located at the front of the step-down regulator 162 that enables significantly reducing the voltage swing Vx 169 of the converter 161 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,134,032 entitled “Apparatus, systems, and methods for providing a hybrid power regulator” and issued on Sep. 22, 2015 by Hanh-Phuc Le et al. The position of the inductor 165 at the input side of the flying switched inductor regulator circuit in this step-down conversion leads to significantly reduced inductor loss and better integration. However, the additional switches 163 and 164 that are put in series in the main power flow from the inductor to the following step-down regulator increases not only the circuit complexity but also switch conduction loss. In addition, this circuit still relies on the use of an explicit on-board/on-chip inductor 165 whose associated loss, similar to traditional converter architectures, significantly contributes to the system heat limit.

SUMMARY

In some embodiments, improved charger efficiency is provided while still allowing volume reduction in a battery charger unit and a power delivery circuit as a whole. For example, embodiments provide better utilization of passive elements, in particular power-transfer inductance. Embodiments may also recognize other inductance currently available in a power system as parasitic and not used for purpose of transferring power from the input to the output. This type of inductance when properly utilized can actively contribute to the power regulation stage without the need for additional inductance either on-chip or off-chip.

Some embodiments include a voltage regulator. The voltage regulator can be configured to receive an input voltage at an input node and to provide an output voltage at an output node. The voltage regulator utilizes parasitic inductance available in the cable to which it is connected. The voltage regulator can be designed for a specific value of inductance or to accommodate multiple inductance values inherently caused by a wide range of cable length. In the voltage regulator, the inherent inductor is connected to a switch matrix configured to switch the inductors between different voltages to generate a voltage at the output.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductance can be from a parasitic inductor formed by a pair of positive and negative wires, also referred as the forward and return wires.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductance can be from a plurality of parasitic inductors formed by pairs of the positive and negative wires, also referred as the forward and return wires.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the switch matrix can include a plurality of power switches configured to induce a current through the inductors to provide multiple output voltages.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the switch matrix can include a plurality of power switches configured to induce multiple currents through the inductors to accommodate multiple input voltages.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the plurality of power switches can be placed at the input side of the inductors.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the plurality of power switches can be placed at the output side of the inductors.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the plurality of power switches can be placed at both the input and output sides of the inductors.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the output voltage of the voltage regulator is determined based on the predetermined duty cycle, operating frequency, or specific timings of the power switches.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductors used in the voltage regulator can be configured in either a first configuration or a second configuration. In the first configuration, the inductors are configured to couple each other and increase the effective inductance utilized for power transfer of the voltage regulator, and in the second configuration, the inductors are configured to couple each other and decrease the effective inductance utilized for power transfer of the voltage regulator.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductor has an inductance in the range of 50 nH-200 nH.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductor has an inductance in the range of 200 nH-10 uH.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the inductor comprises parasitic passives from a connection cable, on a printed circuit board, or on-chip or combination of them.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the voltage regulator can utilize one or more of the available parasitic passive components in power storage and transfer.

In some embodiments of a voltage regulator, the regulator can provide more than one output terminal, and the output terminals can be controlled to different voltage levels.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, example features in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the disclosed subject matter that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the disclosed subject matter in detail, it is to be understood that the disclosed subject matter is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The disclosed subject matter is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. For example, although examples may include a specific type of cable, such as an USB cable or an input cable of an AC-grid connection system used as a part of a power conversion system, the specific types of cable(s) described are only examples. Other types of cables, such as AC power line cables in home, building, and data centers, etc., may also be used as would be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art from the description herein. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, systems, methods and media for carrying out the several purposes of the disclosed subject matter. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter.

These together with the other objects of the disclosed subject matter, along with the various example features of novelty which characterize the disclosed subject matter, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the disclosed subject matter, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various features and advantages of the disclosed subject matter can be more fully appreciated with reference to the following detailed description of the disclosed subject matter when considered in connection with the following drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements.

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate a current electronic system using USB cable, and a sample circuit connected to the output USB terminal.

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrate a schematic model of a typical USB cable.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a smart USB cable that has circuit networks integrated in either or both terminals of the cable and provides both power connection and power conversion using parasitic inductances of the cable wires, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a smart USB cable that provides both power connection and power conversion using parasitic inductances of the cable wires using circuit networks integrated in either or both input and output devices connected to the USB cable, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a buck regulator that is adapted to provide an output voltage lower than the input voltage using an input switch network, a cable and an output capacitor network, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a boost regulator that is adapted to provide an output voltage higher than an input voltage using a cable, an output switch and a capacitor network, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a buck-boost regulator that is adapted to provide an output voltage higher than an input voltage using an input switch network, a cable, an output switch and a capacitor network, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 8A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a regulator that is adapted to provide an output voltage from an input voltage using a cable and an output network that includes a switch matrix and a switch capacitor converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 8B illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a regulator that is adapted to provide an output voltage from an input voltage using a cable and an output network that includes a switch matrix that connects the positive wire of the cable to multiple nodes of a switch capacitor converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 8C illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a regulator adapted to provide an output voltage from an input voltage using a cable and an output network that includes a switch matrix that connects the negative wire of the USB cable to multiple nodes of a switch capacitor converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 8D illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a regulator adapted to provide an output voltage from an input voltage using a cable and an output network that includes a switch matrix that connects a positive wire of the cable to multiple nodes of a switch capacitor converter and connects a negative wire of the cable to multiple different nodes of a switch capacitor converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of another example embodiment of a switching converter other than using a switched-capacitor DC-DC converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 10A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a boost-type AC-to-DC rectifier stage adapted to convert an AC input voltage to a DC output voltage using parasitic inductance from a power cable, for example, a standard wall-plug power cord, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 10B illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a DC-to-AC inverter topology adapted to convert a DC input voltage to an AC output voltage using parasitic inductance from a power cable.

FIG. 11A illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a switching converter 1104 connected between the converter shown in FIG. 10A and an output to provide an efficient step-down or step-up conversion compared with the amplitude of an input voltage, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 11B illustrates a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a switching converter connected between an input and the converter shown in FIG. 10B to provide an efficient step-down or step-up conversion compared with the magnitude of an input voltage, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIGS. 12A-12B illustrate an example schematic diagram and graph, respectively, depicting operational waveforms of an example for the converter shown in FIG. 10A, where the AC source Vin can have amplitude up to 48 V and the output voltage Vout can be regulated efficiently at 12 V, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of an example embodiment of simple schematic version of the circuit shown in FIG. 8A where the cable is utilized with a switched-capacitor including one capacitor and three switches to implement a DC-DC converter, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

FIG. 14 illustrates schematic diagram of an example embodiment of a generalized circuit extension of the simple circuit shown in FIG. 13, in which the circuit can include a one or more capacitors connected directly to one wire of the cable, and one or more inductor and switches, to provide an efficient input-output conversion that can be either DC to DC, DC to AC, or AC to DC, according to one or more embodiments shown and described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth regarding the systems and methods of the disclosed subject matter and the environment in which such systems and methods may operate, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed subject matter. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art, however, that the disclosed subject matter may be practiced without such specific details, and that certain features, which are well known in the art, are not described in detail in order to avoid complication of the disclosed subject matter. In addition, it will be understood that the examples provided below are exemplary, and that it is contemplated that there are other systems and methods that are within the scope of the disclosed subject matter.

Modern consumer electronics have relied heavily on the electronic systems to be more integrated and smaller to offer device makers flexibility in feature development and users convenience of use. In the past decade, the pace of integration has become even faster. Designs have evolved from a simple central processing unit (CPU) to a system on chip (SoC), that integrates the CPU with a graphic processing unit (GPU), memory, interface controller (USB, PCI, display, data ports) and analog blocks including wireless communication functions (WIFI, 3G, 4G LTE etc).

This system integration brings two significant benefits to end users. One is an improved system speed and lower system power consumption by mitigating the interconnect parasitic losses due to shorter physical distance between functional blocks. The other is significant area reduction in board implementation.

While nearly all other functions are being integrated into SoCs, power management units have been slow in matching the speed of integration because of fundamental trade-off between efficiency and implementation area. This fundamental trade-off is directly related to integrated power switches and passive components for energy storage. While integrated power switches benefit from fast integrated circuit technology advancement, technology for passive components, particularly power inductors, does not advance fast enough.

This problem shows up more apparent in mobile applications that have a need to have a more efficient and more integrated switching charger for battery or other energy storage element. To save implementation area, there has been recent interest in building fully integrated voltage regulators (FIVRs) that integrate all its active and passive components in a single die or in a single package. There are three main strategies to do this, a first strategy is to use pure capacitors that can be easily integrated on-die; a second to implement an integrated inductor with advanced technology; and a third to combine both capacitor and inductor elements in a hybrid regulator. All these three strategies are possible with a regulator using ultra high switching frequency, e.g. 100s of MHz, that allows smaller passive components.

FIVRs that can reduce board size and enable sub-nanosecond response with a switched capacitor DC-DC converter approach were reported in an article entitled “Design Techniques for Fully Integrated Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Regulators,” published in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) in September 2011, by Hanh-Phuc Le et al.; and an article entitled “A Sub-ns Response Fully-Integrated Battery-Connected Switched-Capacitor Voltage Regulator Delivering 0.19 W/mm² at 73% Efficiency,” published in the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in February 2013, by Hanh-Phuc Le et al. A similar effort using a switched-inductor approach was reported in an article entitled “A 2.5D Integrated Voltage Regulator Using Coupled-Magnetic-Core Inductors on Silicon Interposer,” published in the JSSC in January 2013. While the integrated inductor approach suffers from low efficiency due to limited on-chip inductance and high cost, the switched-capacitor counterpart has a fundamental drawback in efficiency when fine regulation is required. For example, a switched-capacitor regulator can achieve high efficiencies at an output voltage equivalent to 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 2/5, 3/5 of the input voltage. However, it can fail to provide high efficiencies when the required output voltage deviates from those values. This is a serious problem in many applications where a continuous range of voltages, or a range of voltages in 5-10 mV steps is desirable. An article entitled “A Fully-Integrated 3-Level DC/DC Regulator for Nanosecond-Scale DVFS,” published in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) in January 2012, by Wonyoung Kim et al. is an effort of FIVRs to solve this problem using a hybrid converter. Another highlight in the direction with hybrid converter is described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2 entitled “Apparatus, systems, and methods for providing a hybrid power regulator,” granted in September 2015. Hybrid converters combine the advantages of high efficiency for high conversion ratio in a switched-capacitor part and high efficiency for fine voltage step regulation in a switched-inductor part. U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2 also describes a strategy to allow an integrated inductor to handle only a fraction of output current, leading to lower inductor resistive loss and improve the regulator efficiency.

Each of the above mentioned publications and patents is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Although having multiple benefits to be a good candidate for FIVRs, hybrid architecture, as well as all other FIVRs, still has a fundamental drawback. In order to reduce the amount of power storage passives to be fully integrated, a voltage regulator needs to operate at ultra high switching frequency, leading to high switching loss. At the same time, all active and passive power components that are non-ideal in a constraint on-chip volume increase thermal dissipation of the power management unit and as well as the whole system. This problem is most serious in a battery charger unit due to the large voltage difference between input and output, and the high current requirement for fast charging capability. As a result, local and global thermal limits hinder a battery charger to be fully integrated or to be a fast charger.

While an inductor with higher value and higher quality factor enables a regulator to achieve higher efficiency, integrated inductors have limited inductance, i.e. ˜10 nano-Henry (nH) and below. However, parasitic inductances that exist in the systems could get to 1 micro-Henry (uH) and above. For example, one wire in a USB cable of 2 meter length has an inductance of ˜2 uH. These inductances are not used to form an energy storage/transfer inductor for power conversion. In this document, we disclose example smart cable designs and methods to utilize the parasitic inductance from one or more cable for both power connection and power conversion.

FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate an example system in which a USB cable 102 only contributes to the system as a connector between an AC/DC adapter 101 and a DC-DC switching charger 103. To avoid the impact of parasitic inductance from the USB cable 102, a capacitor 122, which could also include multiple capacitors, is added at the input of the charger 103. DC-DC Switching charger 103 connected directly to one end of the USB cable 102 includes the input filtering capacitor 122, an output capacitor 123, and a network 124 of power switches, power storage components including one or more inductors and capacitors. Note that the active and passive components in the network 124 can be in plural form for each, e.g. the network of components to form a converter, for example, a hybrid converter such as described U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2.

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrate a model of a typical USB cable 102. Although many examples described herein include the use of a USB cable, the USB cable is merely an example of a type of cable or wire that may be used. For example, as used herein, the term wire includes, but is not limited to, a wire of a cable, a wire, lead or trace on a printed circuit board or in an on-chip wire, lead or trace or other wire, lead or trace capable of carrying current. As used herein, however, when referring to using a parasitic inductance of a wire or cable, it should be noted that this is intended to refer to using parasitic impedance of a wire or cable and not merely use of a discrete inductor (even though the discrete inductor itself includes a wire in a package). Where the parasitic inductance of a wire (e.g., of a cable, lead, trace, or on chip wire) is used in series with a discrete inductor (and thus allowing use of a smaller discrete inductor) it is considered to be utilizing the parasitic inductance of the wire (e.g., of a cable, lead, trace, or on chip wire) as used herein if the inductance contribution of the parasitic inductance of the wire is significant, that is at least greater than 20 percent of the total inductance (e.g., series inductance) of the combined wire parasitic inductance and inductance of the discrete inductor. In some embodiments, for example, the relative contribution of the parasitic inductance of a wire may be at least 1:5, 1:4, 1:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1, 6:1, 7:1, 8:1, 9:1, 10:1, 100:1, 500:1 or 1000:1 the contribution of the inductance of a discrete inductor used in combination with the parasitic inductance of the wire. A schematic model 150 of the two power wires of USB cable 102 is shown in FIG. 2B. Inductor L₁ 131 and L₂ 133 represent intrinsic inductance of the positive wire 137 and negative wire 138. Since these two wires 137 and 138 are usually twisted together and coupled for almost the whole length of USB cable 102, this interaction is modeled by magnetizing inductors L_(m1) 132 and L_(m1) 132 and an ideal transformer 136. A capacitor 139 models lumped capacitive coupling between the two wires. This capacitance is relatively small at a frequency range of interest, i.e. switching frequency of a converter, and can be resonated out by the inductors.

The inductance values depend on the cable length that would typically vary, such as from 10 centimeters to 3 meters. Even with the minimum of 10 centimeters in this example range, the intrinsic inductance of each wire is tens to hundreds of nano-Henries that is significantly larger than practical integrated inductor values.

Standard USB cables have 2 other wires used for data transfer that are not modeled here. They could be used for digital control purpose of this power conversion. However, since they are not part of the direct power path, these data wires are not discussed in the example embodiments described herein.

The USB (or other type of) cable power architecture can be modified so that active switching circuitry interact directly and utilize these parasitic inductances for power transfer. FIG. 3 illustrates an example strategy where circuits can be integrated into one or both terminals of a USB cable. For example, depending on the application of the circuit, an input circuit network 306 can be integrated into an input terminal 302 and an output circuit network 307 integrated into an output terminal 303.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example embodiment in which a USB cable can stay unmodified while circuits in electronic devices connected to USB terminals 402, 403 are designed in order to utilize the cable parasitic inductances. Depending on specific application the input circuit network 306 can be integrated into the input device 408 and the output circuit network 307 integrated into the output device 409.

Each of the input or output circuit networks 306, 307, 406, and 407 can include either a switch matrix, a set of capacitors, or both to implement some specific topology and satisfy desirable power conversion. FIGS. 5, 6, 7, and 8A-8D illustrate example strategies to organize these circuit networks to form a buck, boost, buck-boost, and hybrid regulators, respectively.

In the regulator configuration in FIG. 5, for example, the input circuit network 506 includes switches 501 and 502 working in two opposite phases, while the output circuit network 507 includes a filtering capacitor 504. These two circuit networks combine with the parasitic passive circuit 150 of the USB cable to form a buck regulator that generates a voltage at V_(OUT) 421 smaller than V_(IN) 420. Note that this configuration when applied to a battery charger example in FIG. 1A will result in a complete removal of heat from the DC/DC switching charger 103 in the output device 409, which can be a smartphone. This can significantly relax the thermal limit of the output device including battery charging heat. The heat dissipation from power switches 501 and 502 are in the cable input plug 402 or in the input device 408, which can be an AC/DC adapter 101. These input device are cheaper than the output device 409 and often have a lot more surface area and volume for heat dissipation.

In the regulator configuration in FIG. 6, there is no input circuit network. The output circuit network 607 includes switches 601 and 602 working in two opposite phases, and a filtering capacitor 604. This circuit network combines with the passive circuit 150 to form a boost regulator that generates a voltage at V_(OUT) 621 larger than V_(IN) 420.

The regulator configuration in FIG. 7 combines the input circuit network 706 (similar to 506), the output circuit network 707 (similar to 607), and the passive circuit 150 to form a buck-boost regulator that generates a voltage at V_(OUT) 721. Similar to a non-inverting buck-boost converter, the switches 701, 702, 703 and 704 can be operated to regulate this output voltage to be either smaller, larger, or equal to the input voltage at V_(IN) 420.

FIG. 8A-8D illustrates other example circuit strategies to implement a hybrid regulator from the parasitic passive circuit 150 of the USB cable combined with a switch matrix 803 and a switching converter 804 in the output network 807. The switching converter can be either a switched capacitor DC-DC converter, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2, or can include a switched inductor part. This combination allows the hybrid regulator to provide an output voltage at V_(OUT) 821 either smaller, larger, or equal to the input voltage at V_(IN) 420. The operation of this hybrid regulator relies on an existence of at least two voltage differences in the switched capacitor regulator 804 that one is smaller and the other is larger than the input voltage V_(IN) 420 to charge and discharge the parasitic inductance in the network 150.

FIG. 8B illustrates an example similar to the schematic in U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2. The circuit in FIG. 8B includes the parasitic inductance network 150 that gives inductors on both the positive and negative connections to the power source V_(IN) 420. In this example regulator, the voltage potential at nodes 832 and 831 referenced to the ground 840 is lower/higher, respectively, than the input voltage V_(IN) 420. In operation, when a switch 802 turns ON the currents in the parasitic inductors in 150 are charged. Then they get discharged when switch 802 turns OFF and switch 801 turns ON. The switching converter 804 receives charge in these both operating phases and transfer that charge to the output load 810 at V_(OUT) 821.

In the example circuit in FIG. 8C, the switch matrix including switch 811 and 812 is connected to the negative wire and nodes 841 and 842 of the switched capacitor regulator 804. As voltage difference (V₈₃₀−V₈₄₁)<V_(IN), and (V₈₃₀−V₈₄₂)>V_(IN), the regulator can utilize the 150's passive components and transfer charge from input to output.

FIG. 8D shows a combination of the switch matrix in both circuits in FIGS. 8B and 8C.

FIG. 9 illustrates another example configuration implementing the switching converter 804 besides using a switched-capacitor DC-DC converter as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,143,032 B2 or in the article entitled “A Sub-ns Response Fully-Integrated Battery-Connected Switched-Capacitor Voltage Regulator Delivering 0.19 W/mm² at 73% Efficiency,” published in the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in February 2013, by Hanh-Phuc Le et al. In this example, the switching converter 804 can be implemented by a switched inductor that includes an inductor 905, switches 903 and 904, and two filtering capacitors 901 and 902. Since both capacitors 901 and 902 receive charge from the input via operations of switches 811 and 812 but the output load 810 is only connected to capacitor 902, inductor 905 delivers the charge from capacitor 901 to capacitor 902 at V_(OUT) 821. In a steady-state operation, the voltage across capacitor 901 is determined by the operation of the switched inductor regulator including inductor 905 and switches 903 and 904. This switched inductor regulator can operate in two phases. In the first phase, while switch 903 is turned ON and switch 904 OFF, inductor 905 gets charge from capacitor 901. In the second phase when switch 903 is turned OFF and switch 904 ON, the charge saved in inductor 905 is transferred to capacitor 902 and the output. In this converter, inductor 905 can be implemented from another parasitic inductance available from the system. It can also be a discrete or integrated inductor.

In some embodiments, parasitic inductance of a cable that carries alternating current (AC) can be used for power conversion. In the above examples, USB (or other) cable inductance can be used for DC-DC power conversion. As in the following examples, other standard cable inductance can be used in AC-DC (rectifier), DC-AC (inverter), or AC-AC power conversion.

FIG. 10A-10B illustrate strategies where parasitic inductance of a normal power cable 1050 can be utilized as a part of a general power conversion stage where the input or output can either be AC or DC types. Similar to the above DC USB (or other) cable shown above, in this power cable inductor L₁ 1031 and L₂ 1033 represent intrinsic inductance of the positive wire 137 and negative wire 138. Since these two wires 137 and 138 are usually twisted together (or coaxial) and coupled for almost the whole length of cable 1050, this interaction is modeled by magnetizing inductors L_(m1) 1032 and L_(m1) 1032 and the ideal transformer 1036. Capacitor 1039 models lumped capacitive coupling between the two wires. This capacitance is relatively small at a frequency range of interest, i.e. a switching frequency of a converter.

FIG. 10A shows Cable 1050 can be combined with a synchronous H-bridge switch network 1004 at the output to form a standard boost-type AC-to-DC conversion/rectification stage that convert an AC input 1042, e.g. from a grid power line, to a DC output voltage 1021 to power the load 1010. In this circuit configuration, output voltage 1021 can ideally be equal to the amplitude of the AC input 1042. This circuit configuration can be applied to many conventional bridgeless boost-type power factor correction (PFC) rectifiers to improve overall system efficiency, eliminate the need for an explicit inductor, and reduce on-board heat dissipation by distributing it over the cable 1050.

In FIG. 10B, the switch matrix 1040 is changed to be at the input 1043 and the cable 1050 at the output 1022. In this example, input 1043 is a DC source. With correct switching operation and duty cycle control for switches 1051, 1052, 1053, and 1054, this circuit forms a standard inverter topology to generate a sinusoidal AC output 1022 to power the load 1011. This inverter circuit can be applied, for example, to a grid connected inverter where the input 1043 can be from a solar power source and output 1022 can be the grid, or to a motor driver inverter where input 1043 is a DC source and output 1022 is used to drive a motor.

The switch matrix 1004 in FIGS. 10A-10B can be modified to have more switches and include capacitors to form a flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) configuration to improve the circuit performance. An example of FCML architecture can be found in the paper entitled “Multi-level conversion: high voltage choppers and voltage-source inverters,” by T. A. Meynard and H. Foch, published in the proceeding of the IEEE Power Electronics Specialist Conference in 1992, which is incorporated by reference herein.

FIG. 11A-11B illustrate an extended example of the switch matrix 1004 beyond the H-bridge switches 1051-1054 that also includes the switching converter 1104. In some embodiments, the switching converter 1104 provide a conversion stage that is synchronous with the operation of H-bridge switches 1051-1054 to provide conversion from Vin 1043 (or 1042) to Vout 1021 (or 1022).

FIG. 12A shows an example implementation of the converter 1104 including nine switches and three capacitors to reduce a voltage swing at Vx 1043. In this example the complete circuit provides an AC-DC conversion from an AC-line input Vin 1042 to DC output Vout 1021. Switches 1051-1054 provide rectification while the switched-capacitor converter 1104 switched at a high frequency, e.g. ˜1 MHz, provides a step-down function in sync with the AC line frequency. Similar to a multi-level converter, the switched-capacitor converter 1104 allows the switching node voltage Vx to switch at high frequency and lower voltage swing, thus reducing input current ripple with small required input inductance. The switched-capacitor converter 1104 also enables output voltage Vout 1021 to be a fraction of the amplitude of Vin 1042. In this example, Vin amplitude can be from ˜0 V to 48 V while Vout can efficiently be regulated at 12 VDC. With the benefits of high switching frequency and small required inductance, this topology enables the use of parasitic inductance, e.g., ranged from 10 nano-Henries to several micro-Henries. FIG. 12B, for example, illustrates the operation of this AC-DC converter with the waveforms of Vx 1043, Vin 1042 and i_(in) 1053.

The switch matrix 1004 in FIGS. 10A-10B and the switch matrix 1004 with switching converter 1104 in FIGS. 11A, 11B, and 12A, are additional examples of how the switch matrix 803 and the switching converter 804 in the output network 807 shown in FIG. 8A can be implemented for AC-DC or DC-AC converters.

FIG. 13 illustrates another example of the output network 807, where three output switches 1311-1313 and capacitor C_(fly) are operated to form a switched capacitor DC-DC converter. The voltage over C_(fly) equals the output voltage Vout 821. Switch 1312 and 1313 can be replaced by diodes. In this particular example, the DC-DC converter has an efficient conversion ratio Vout/Vin in the range of 0.5 to 1. More detailed operation of this converter is described in the paper, entitled “An inductor-less hybrid step-down DC-DC converter architecture for future smart power cable,” by Gab-Su Seo and Hanh-Phuc Le, published in the Proceeding of the 2017 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), which is incorporated by reference herein.

The circuit 807 in FIG. 13 can be extended to have more switches and capacitors to cover a wider range of conversion ratios. The plural numbers of switches and capacitors can be configured in a ladder, Dickson, Cockcroft-Walton Multiplier, Fibonacci, Series-Parallel, Doubler, or another type of switched-capacitor circuits. The parasitic inductor from the input cable is utilized as a circuit element to form an efficient hybrid converter as also described in above examples. The circuit 807 can also include one or a plural number of additional inductors to provide additional soft-charging operation for the switched-capacitor circuits to improve overall efficiency. These additional inductors are often small, below 1 micro-Henry. The circuit 807 in FIG. 9 is an example for inclusion of inductor 905.

FIG. 14 illustrates a general configuration of the network 807, as an extension of the circuit 807 in FIG. 13, where one terminal of one (in one example, only capacitor 1411) or a plural number of capacitors (1411 to 141 x) can be connected directly to one wire of the cable 150. Other capacitors 1421-142 x, if available, can be connected in series or parallel with capacitors 1411-141 x via a plural number of switches 1490 x, some of which can also be implemented by diodes, to form functional switched-capacitor circuits. One or a plural number of inductor 1405 x can be added to contribute to an efficient conversion. The complete network 807 is operated to utilize parasitic inductance from Cable 150 to provide an efficient input-output conversion that can be either DC to DC, DC to AC, or AC to DC.

Note that all these converters can be operated bidirectional, meaning the input source and output load in terms of power delivery direction can be interchangeable.

With the above disclosed methods, a cable can be used not only for power connection, but also power conversion and reduce the need for explicit inductor(s) for a power conversion stage. Since the inductors are spread over a length of the cable, there is no thermal contribution from inductors to a constraint area in mobile device. In addition, larger inductance values allow a smaller switching frequency of the switch matrix and thus can improve the regulator efficiency. The cable is therefore “smart” because it can deliver power as well as convert and regulate power.

Various embodiments of the disclosed smart cable can be used for a battery (or other energy storage element) charger in a battery-operated device. For example, an output node of the regulator can be coupled to a battery (or other energy storage element) so that the output voltage and the output current of the regulator are used to charge the battery (or other energy storage element).

In some embodiments, for example, the parasitic inductances can be combined in a regulator that operate in one of multiple modes, including: 1) pulse width modulation (PWM) control mode where connected switches are switched in a plural number of phases; 2) pulse frequency modulation (PFM) mode where the switching frequency of the regulator switches is modulated to satisfy a required regulation; and 3) resonant mode where switching actions of the power switches are timed to achieve resonant switching and allow the inductance group to resonate out unwanted parasitic capacitances in the system.

In some embodiments, the output device 409 can include user equipment. The user equipment can communicate with one or more radio access networks and with wired communication networks. The user equipment can be, for example, a cellular phone having telephonic communication capabilities. The user equipment can also be a smart phone providing services such as word processing, web browsing, gaming, e-book capabilities, an operating system, and a full keyboard. The user equipment can also be a tablet computer providing network access and most of the services provided by a smart phone. The user equipment operates using an operating system such as Symbian OS, iPhone OS, RIM's Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Linux, HP WebOS, Tizen and Android. The screen might be a touch screen that is used to input data to the mobile device, in which case the screen can be used instead of the full keyboard. The user equipment can also keep global positioning coordinates, profile information, or other location information. The user equipment can also be a wearable electronic device.

The output device 409 can also be a server blade in a server rack of a data center. In this case, the parasitic inductances in the 150 can be from the cable connecting the server blade to the backplane of the rack. An example for this is shown in FIG. 12A where parasitic inductance of the AC-grid-connected cable can be utilized together with the converter 1004 to create an AC-DC converter and provide a DC voltage at Vout 1021.

The output device 409 can also include any platforms capable of computations and communication. Non-limiting examples include televisions (TVs), video projectors, set-top boxes or set-top units, digital video recorders (DVR), computers, netbooks, laptops, and any other audio/visual equipment with computation capabilities. The output device 409 can be configured with one or more processors that process instructions and run software that may be stored in memory. The processor also communicates with the memory and interfaces to communicate with other devices. The processor can be any applicable processor such as a system-on-a-chip that combines a CPU, an application processor, and flash memory. The output device 409 can also provide a variety of user interfaces such as a keyboard, a touch screen, a trackball, a touch pad, and/or a mouse. The output device 409 may also include speakers and a display device in some embodiments. The output device 409 can also include a bio-medical electronic device.

In some embodiments, the regulator using parasitic inductance can operate in a reverse direction in which the output node in the voltage regulator is coupled to an input voltage source and the input node of the voltage regulator is coupled to a target load.

It is to be understood that the disclosed subject matter is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The disclosed subject matter is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, systems and methods for carrying out the several purposes of the disclosed subject matter. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter.

Although the disclosed subject matter has been described and illustrated in the foregoing exemplary embodiments, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example, and that numerous changes in the details of implementation of the disclosed subject matter may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosed subject matter, which is limited only by the claims which follow. 

We claim:
 1. A voltage regulator comprising: a voltage regulator comprising an input node and an output node, the voltage regulator adapted to be coupled to a wire via at least one of the input node and the output node, wherein the voltage regulator is adapted to receive an input voltage at the input node and to provide an output voltage at the output node, the voltage regulator utilizing a parasitic inductance of the wire to implement a power storage and transfer inductor for power conversion.
 2. The voltage regulator of claim 1, wherein the wire comprises at least one of the following: a wire of a cable, a pair of wires of the cable, a twisted pair of wires of the cable, a coaxial pair of wires of the cable, a positive wire and a negative wire of the cable, a forward wire and a return wire of the cable, a wire on printed circuit board, and an on-chip wire.
 3. The voltage regulator of claim 1 or 2, wherein the wire comprises a first terminal and a second terminal and the first terminal of the wire is connected to a switch matrix that is configured to alternate between a first configuration and a second configuration, wherein, in the first configuration, the switch matrix is configured to generate a voltage difference between first and second terminals of the wire, and wherein, in the second configuration, the switch matrix is configured to generate another voltage difference of the opposite polarity between the first and second terminals of the wire.
 4. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein voltage regulator is designed for a predetermined value of parasitic inductance corresponding to a predetermined wire.
 5. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein voltage regulator is designed for a one or more undetermined values of parasitic inductance corresponding to an undetermined wire.
 6. The voltage regulator of claim 5 wherein the voltage regulator comprises a switch matrix adapted to be coupled to the wire and to switch the parasitic inductance of the wire between different voltages to generate the output voltage
 7. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein the voltage regulator comprises a switch matrix comprising a plurality of switches configured to induce a current through the wire to provide a plurality of output voltage magnitudes.
 8. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein the voltage regulator comprises a switch matrix comprising a plurality of switches configured to induce a plurality of currents through the wire to accommodate a plurality of input voltage magnitudes.
 9. The voltage regulator of claim 7 or 8 wherein the plurality of switches of the switch matrix are disposed at an input side of the wire.
 10. The voltage regulator of claim 7 or 8 wherein the plurality of switches of the switch matrix are disposed at an output side of the wire.
 11. The voltage regulator of any of claims 7 through 10 wherein the plurality of switches of the switch matrix are disposed at an input side and at an output side of the wire.
 12. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein the output voltage of the voltage regulator is controlled by at least one of a predetermined duty cycle, an operating frequency and a timing of one or more switches of the voltage regulator.
 13. The voltage regulator of any of the preceding claims wherein the parasitic inductance of the wire can be configured in a first configuration and a second configuration.
 14. The voltage regulator of claim 13 wherein, in the first configuration, the voltage regulator is adapted to couple a plurality of parasitic impedances of the wire to increase the effective impedance of the wire utilized for power conversion.
 15. The voltage regulator of claim 13 or 14 wherein, in the second configuration, the voltage regulator is adapted to couple a plurality of parasitic impedances of the wire to decrease the effective impedance of the wire utilized for power conversion.
 16. An electronic system comprising: a voltage regulator according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the voltage regulator is configured to operate in a reverse direction in which the output node in the voltage regulator is coupled to an input voltage source and the input node of the voltage regulator is coupled to a target load.
 17. The electronic system of claim 16, wherein the electronic system comprises a mobile communication device.
 18. A method to use parasitic inductance of a power cable for power conversion, wherein at least one terminal of one wire of the cable is switched between two or more voltage levels, that are in or connected to the circuit, at a frequency that equals or proportional to the switching frequency of a converter to periodically charge and discharge the current in the cable inductance to transfer charge from an input to an output.
 19. The said method in claim 18, wherein the said wire terminal can be switched directly with one or more switches to the said two or more voltage levels.
 20. The said method in claim 18, wherein the said wire terminal can be switched indirectly to the said two or more voltage levels via the operation of one or more capacitors and switches.
 21. The said method in claim 20, wherein one or plural number of the said capacitors have one terminal directly connected to the said wire terminal.
 22. The said method in claim 18, where in the power conversion comprises at least one of the followings: a direct-current input voltage to a direct-current output voltage, a direct-current input voltage to an alternating-current output voltage, an alternating-current input voltage to a direct-current output voltage, an alternating-current input voltage to an alternating-current output voltage, a direct-current input voltage to a direct-current output current, an alternating-current input voltage to a direct-current output current, a direct-current input current to a direct-current output current, an alternating-current input current to a direct-current output current. 